HOMEPAGE

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

This week the first two books of the new cbj children's book series "Schattenwald Geheimnisse" (engl. orgl.: "Sophie and the Shadow Woods") by Linda Chapman and Lee Weatherly have just been released! And now I'm pretty happy to finally show you some of the stuff I did the last half year :)

But first the official short description:
On her tenth birthday Sophie learns an unbelievable secret from her grandfather: Hidden deeply within the woods right behind her house there is the magic Gateway to the Shadow Realm. And she is the Guardian of this magical gateway that keeps the Shadow Creatures - the Ink Cap Goblins, Swamp Boggles and Bat Sprites - from trespassing into her world and bringing disaster upon mankind. But will she be up to this hard assignment?
The Magical Key that locks the secret gateway has been stolen by the nasty Goblin King Ug! Sophie and Sam are to recapture it. The key is only able to open the gate with one of the six well-hidden gems. But the King and his mean Goblins unravel the secret and a breathless chase begins...

Although the Schattenwald Geheimnisse are meant for children 8+ the story is thrilling and above all the creatures that appear in the books and that Sophie and Sam have to fight against are pretty originally invented and are getting more and more creepy the further the story and the series proceed. So it was great to give the decriptions those monster-faces I had in mind when reading the books. Ok, more than once I went too far and forgot that my creatures were probably the last thing the little readers saw before turning off the light for sleep. So sometimes I had to make them appear more harmless or add a funny item to them:Obwohl die Schattenwald Geheimnisse für Kinder ab 8 Jahren sind, ist die Story wirklich aufregend und vor allem sind die Kreaturen, die im Buch auftauchen und gegen die Sophie und Sam kämpfen müssen wirklich kreativ erdacht und werden immer gruseliger, je weiter die Geschichte und die Serie fortschreitet. Es war also wirklich großartig, den Beschreibungen die Monster Gesichter zu verpassen, die ich beim Lesen der Bücher vor Augen hatte. Ok, hin und wieder bin ich etwas übers Ziel hinausgeschossen und hab vergessen, dass meine Kreaturen wahrscheinlich das letzte sind, dass die jungen Leser sehen, bevor sie das Licht ausmachen, um zu schlafen... Also musste ich sie manchmal nochmal etwas harmloser zeichnen oder ihnen einen witzigen Gegenstand zur Hand geben: